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8 of the 10 Least Educated California Cities are in L.A. County

By Zach Behrens
November 15, 2011
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Recently released census data puts eight Los Angeles County areas, mostly clustered in the southeastern portion, in a top ten list of the state's least educated, according to numbers reported on California Watch.

Bell Gardens tops the list, made up of predominately low-income, Latino cities, with 44.9 percent of residents 25 or older who have completed less than ninth grade. Other neighboring and nearby cities and census designated places include Maywood, Florence-Graham, Cudahy, Bell, East Los Angeles and Huntington Park. Lennox in southwestern L.A. County and Coachella in the desert are also listed.

The only non-Southern California city to make the list is Watsonville in Santa Cruz County.

As for the most educated cities, L.A. County's Manhattan Beach and La Cañada Flintridge are the only two from Southern California to make the top ten list, which was dominated by Bay Area cites.

Read Joanna Lin's report, Palo Alto is California's most educated city.

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